Cyril and Vasagie Govender

To All at SA Home Loans My wife and I are both nearing retirement and having each served the Department of Education for over 30 years, we planned on selling our current home and downsizing to an apartment in Cape Town to be near our son. I had spent the last three years looking for the perfect apartment, one that would suit all our retirement needs. I finally found one in Century City that was perfect and on the market for R1.85 million. With legal and bond costs, we were looking at around R2 million. We had savings of R750 000, which meant we needed a bond of R1.25 million. As my current home is valued at R950 000, and the fact that we had investments that would guarantee repayment of the bond, I thought getting a loan would be a breeze. My situation was made more urgent by the fact that there was already an offer on the property but the deposit had not been paid. My current home is freehold, so I approached the same bank (that granted my first home loan) for the above loan. I thought that they would welcome me with open arms, (maybe even a cup of coffee), considering all the interest I had paid over the many years. No such luck. Instead, I was given a "million" documents and told that I would have to fill them in and hope for the best. My urgency did not matter even though I was able to pay R600 000 as a deposit! My Estate Agent needed quick bond approval in order to stake a strong claim to the apartment owners.